The Living Corpses
by Honor of the Dragon
Summary: The Shinigami had to face new kind of enemies, The Corrupted Ones, or in other word, zombies. The Shinigami couldn't kill the zombies, because this was the job of The Living Corpses. But The Living Corpses were friends or foes? AU
1. Chapter 1

**This is my new story. The plot sets up 150 years after the Thousand Year Blood War, and it is AU. You will find many people that supposed to be dead in Bleach are still alive in this. You have to read to find out who are they. Oh yeah, and there will be a lot of couples in this story. I know I said that there will be no pairing in any stories of mine, but still… I want to try it. Especially now when I'm in sugar high.**

**Sorry for HitsuHina, HitsuMatsu, HitsuKarin or any of Hitsu/someone fans out there because Shi-chan won't be pair up with any one. I love him too much to let that happen, so he will still single in "The Living Corpses". That means no Hitsu/OC either.**

**And like other stories of mine, Shi-chan is still the main character 3.**

**Hm, I'm talking too much. Let the story begins.**

**Chapter 1: A girl in the cemetery**

Toshiro was walking around Karakura aimlessly. It had been 82 years since he last had a mission here, and he had to admit that he was kind of miss this place.

He sighed. His new mission was to find out what was going on in Karakura. Hollow activities had decreased very fast in the last 22 years, and there were reports about strange kind of creatures roaming around. When Shinigami attempt to find these creatures, they found nothing. It seemed those creatures had disappeared into thin air. Gotei 13 even asked for help from the Fullbringers, Visored, Quincy and some Espada that were still alive (took at least 6 years for them to accept to help the Shinigami), but the result was still the same. They couldn't figure out what were those creatures and what happened with the Hollow activities.

For some unknown reason, Yamamoto decided to send Toshiro and his advance team to solve this mystery. So, here they were, in this town and had to stay in the motel. Why, you might ask. Because all of the people that let them stayed at their houses before the Winter War happened were now in Soul Society.

Toshiro walked past the cemetery and suddenly stopped. There was a girl in the cemetery, alone. The girl had snow white hair and she wore knee-length white dress. She just stood there and looked at something.

Curiosity killed a Shinigami, Toshiro went to the cemetery. It wasn't like you could usually see a girl around the age of ten with white hair, standing alone in the graveyard in a murky and windy day, when people avoided going outside.

The young taicho walked to the girl and saw that she was looking down at one grave. The girl heard his footsteps and turned around, smiling at him.

"Hello," she said softly.

"Uh… hello," Toshiro replied, "What are you doing here alone in this kind of weather?"

"What does it look like? I'm visiting someone," the girl answered, "What about you?! What are you doing here?"

Toshiro scratched his head, "I was just walking by and I saw you. I was curious so…"

The girl giggled, but didn't say anything else. She just turned back to look at the grave.

Toshiro's curious made him walked next to the girl. He looked at the grave.

**Ichihara Hatsune**

**Date of Birth: April 16, 2153**

**Date of Death: April 15, 2163**

"Your acquaintance?!" he asked.

"In some way," the girl sighed.

"She died too young."

"Hai. She died because of leukemia."

The girl kneeled down and placed her small hand on the cold surface of the gravestone. She bowed her head and closed her eyes. Toshiro just stood there awkwardly.

"It had been 7 years," the girl said.

Toshiro didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say after all.

The girl sighed once again and stood up. She brushed off the dust from her dress then turned to look at Toshiro once again. At that moment, Toshiro realized the girl had pale skin that had grayish tint and very strange eyes. Her eyes had purple-red color with an additional ice blue ring in them that glowed brightly. The taicho wondered how come he didn't notice about her eyes the first time she looked at him.

The girl smiled and brought her hand out, "My name is Kuroichi Hatsune by the way."

Toshiro shook her hand, "Hitsugaya Toshiro. Were you named after that person?" he looked at the grave.

"You could say that," Hayate shrugged slightly, "We are similar in many ways."

Suddenly, the duo heard someone called out.

"TAICHO!" it was Rangiku.

Toshiro frowned, wondered what had happened that caused the panic in his fukutaicho's voice. He turned around and saw Rangiku in her soul form running toward him.

"Matsumoto?! What happened?" he asked.

Rangiku panted, "Tai… Taicho, we had… a clue… about those creatures… and what cause them disappeared…"

Toshiro's eyes widened, "Really?!"

"Hai," Rangiku still panted. Then she tilted her head to one side, "What are you doing here anyway, taicho?"

Toshiro suddenly remembered he was in the cemetery and talking to Hatsune when Rangiku appeared. He immediately turned to look for the white haired girl, prepared to face her confusing look and her question of who he was talking to. But he found no one there. It was just him and his fukutaicho in the middle of a graveyard.

"Kuroichi?!" he asked, looking around, but still couldn't find the said girl.

"Kuroichi?!" he called once again.

But he received no answer.

Rangiku was completely lost, "Who is Kuroichi, taicho?"

Toshiro ignored her question.

"Matsumoto! When you came here, did you see where a white haired girl in white dress ran to?" he asked.

"Huh?! What are you talking about, taicho? Who is that white haired girl?"

"You didn't see her when you ran to me?!"

Rangiku shook her head, "I just felt your present here so I came to find you. When I saw you, you were alone."

Toshiro frowned. All he could think was, 'What the hell?!'

He remembered that when he heard his fukutaicho's voice, he turned toward the voice immediately. It took Rangiku nearly 5 seconds to appear, and it was not enough time for someone to run away. And where did she run to, because Toshiro himself was looking at the gate of the cemetery at that moment?

"Taicho?!" Rangiku's voice snapped him out of his thought.

"Huh?"

"What are you thinking so hard about? And who is this white haired girl?!"

Toshiro just walked past his second in command and left the cemetery.

"It's nothing," he said, "Don't worry about that, Matsumoto."

Rangiku frowned, "But taicho, something is bothering you. I know it!"

"Just drop the subject, Matsumoto!"

"But-"

"I said, drop. The. Subject!" Toshiro snapped.

Rangiku was slightly taken back.

"H-hai, taicho," she stuttered a bit.

"Now, where to go?" Toshiro asked in monotone.

"Urahara Shoten," Rangiku replied, "The others are waiting."

Toshiro nodded, and the two made their way to the direction of the ex-Junibantai Taicho's shop.

**Yeah, the first chapter. Hope you like it.**

**Now I'm calm down a little. My fingers are little hurt because of typing too fast. But I'm already promise I will give you two chapters of TLC. So… on with chappie 2.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I forgot about the Disclaimer in the first chapter T.T**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Everyone knows that, right?! Right!**

**Chapter 2: Zombies?!**

Toshiro sipped his tea, "Ok. So tell me what happened? What are those creatures? And where is Kurosaki?"

They were all sitting in Urahara Shoten, waiting for someone to tell Toshiro what had happened. Rangiku looked at Yumichika, who looked at Ikkaku, who in turn looked at Renji, who then looked at Rukia. The black haired girl looked around and sighed in defeat.

"Hitsugaya-taicho," she began, "It started like this…"

**- TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC -**

"Matsumoto-san," Rukia called, "Do you know where is Hitsugaya-taicho?"

Rangiku shrugged, "He went out. It's pretty boring here after all. We have been staying in Karakura for nearly 3 months now, but still don't find out anything…"

"He is not the only one who is bored," Ichigo grumbled.

Rukia scowled, "Stop complaining. Sotaicho didn't assign you on this mission. It's your own fault for volunteer to come with us."

Ichigo looked at Rukia in boredom, "Like I would let you come here all by yourself. When I proposed you two months ago, Byakuya threatened to slaughter me with Senbonzakura if I let you get hurt. I don't want to die before I can marry you."

Rukia blushed slightly, then huffed and hit her fiancé on the head.

"Shut up," she mumbled, "It's not like I'm defenseless. Beside, I have others with me."

Ichigo chuckled, "Do you think I will let some midget protects my fiancée for me?! Nope, I don't think so."

"If Hitsugaya-taicho knows you called him 'midget', then you are as good as dead," Renji pointed out.

Ichigo just rolled his eyes.

The advance team (minus Toshiro) sat there for a while. Then, Ikkaku stood up.

"I'm going out," he said.

"I'll come with you," Yumichika said.

The two Juichibantai members left, leaving the other four. The said four people just shrugged and returned to do whatever they were doing.

45 minutes later, the four shot up when they felt Ikkaku's and Yumichika's reiatsu. It appeared that they were fighting, but there was no sight of Hollows or Arrancar. So what were they fighting against?!

The answer was surprisingly simple. They were fighting with the mysterious creature. Or creatures.

Ichigo, Rukia, Renji and Rangiku swallowed their soul candies and then jumped out of the window, immediately shunpoed to Ikkaku and Yumichika to help them. What they saw was totally unexpected.

The two Juichibantai members were surrounded by those creatures that had pale gray skin, which was rotting off and in severe cases, some even had their skin already falling off the bone. The creatures also had unhealed wounds on their bodies. Their clothes were tattered, ripped and dirty. They were covered in dried blood and their eyes were dulled. Most of them had missing or twisted limbs. The creatures moaned and groaned when they slowly made their way to the Shinigami.

Both Ikkaku and Yumichika were already used Shikai. They looked tired, and were panting. It shocked the others completely. They had never seen those two like that.

But it was not the time to think. It was time for action.

The reinforcements immediately landed next to Ikkaku and Yumichika, who looked at them with silent thanked in their eyes.

"Be careful," Ikkaku warned, "They are dangerous. We saw them eating a woman alive not long ago."

"And we saw that boy turned into one of them," Yumichika added, pointed at a creature that looked more human than the rest of those creatures.

"How did that happen?" Renji asked, slashing the nearest creature.

"They are what humans called 'zombies'," Ichigo said, "They eat humans and whoever being bite by them will turn into one. But they were supposed to be imagining creatures! GETSUGA TENSHO!"

Many fell under Ichigo's attacked, but they did not die. Not only that, many others appeared.

"Where do they come from?" Rukia shouted, "And why didn't they die?"

A chuckle from above causing the Shinigami to look up. Hovering above them was a teenage boy, around the age of 18, with pure white hair and pale skin that had grayish tint. The boy wore a black coat, underneath was a white shirt. He also had black trousers and black boots. And in his left hand was a black pistol that had silver talisman symbols on it.

"They are very easy questions, Kuchiki Rukia," the boy said, "Those things hear the noise of the fight and they make their way to this location to have their meal. And you can't kill them, because you are not one of my kind."

With that, the boy landed right in front of them.

"Who are you?" Rangiku demanded, "And how did you know about Rukia-san?"

The boy turned to look at them, and the Shinigami found their breath caught at their throats. The boy's eyes were purple-red, with glowing ice blue ring in them. The boy just simply smirked.

"I don't just know her name, I also know the name of every of you, Matsumoto Rangiku," the boy replied, "How I know about that, you will find out in the near future. And about who I am…"

The boy paused and pointed his pistol at the zombies. The talisman symbols on it turned blood red. Then, suddenly, the boy's body was covered in black reiatsu.

The boy fired.

The Shinigami watched in awe when instead of the bullet that shot out from the pistol, it was black fire. The fire swept around and burnt down the zombies, causing those creatures to shriek and scream. Then, everything went silence. There was no sight showing that this area was just covered by zombies just a moment ago.

The boy turned to look at them once again.

"I'm Kuroichi Takashi," the boy said, "The sixth child and the forth Master of the Kuroichi clan. I'm also known as 'Hokama'. Nice to meet all of you, Shinigami of Gotei 13."

He bowed to them, but still kept the smirk on his face.

The Shinigami didn't know what to say. They just stood there, dumbfounded. But Takashi didn't care about that. He just put his pistol back inside his coat, then with a swift movement, he jumped to the air.

"As much as I want to stay and talk, I'm afraid I have to go now," Takashi spoke, "But don't worry, we will meet again soon enough."

Suddenly, something caught attention of all of them. Right behind Rukia, a surviving zombie appeared.

"RUKIA!" Ichigo screamed.

The zombie made a move to bite the fukutaicho of Jusanbantai, who was too scared to do anything. Reacted quickly, Ichigo shoved his fiancée out of the way. But the zombie bit him instead.

"Kuso!" Takashi cursed loudly and immediately pulled out his pistol, shot the creature. This time, a red bullet with glowing silver talisman symbols on it shot out from the weapon. The bullet hit the zombie right in its forehead, causing it to release its teeth of Ichigo's arm and fell to the dirty ground.

Like it wasn't enough, Takashi shot the zombie two more times before landed next to Ichigo and the Shinigami. Rukia was hugging her fiancé tight with tears poured out from her beautiful eyes.

"Don't cry, Rukia," Ichigo whispered, "Please don't cry. I don't want to see you sad."

Rukia just kept crying quietly, hugging Ichigo tighter.

The used to be Substitute Shinigami looked at his friends and said, "Please kill me."

His friends were shocked.

"NANI?!" they all yelled.

"Please do it," Ichigo still insisted.

"We are not going to do such thing!" Rangiku screeched.

"You have to," Ichigo said seriously, "Or else I'm going to turn into one of those zombies."

Before the Shinigami could reply anything, they heard Takashi huffed in annoyance.

"You don't have to die," he said, "I know a person that can heal you."

The Shinigami looked at him.

"Really?" Rukia stuttered.

Takashi looked at them in boredom, then called out.

"Nee-sama, I need your help."

"Who are you callin…," before Renji could finish his sentence, a new person appeared.

This time, it was a teenage girl, who looked younger than Takashi. She looked around the age of 16 with shoulder-length white hair and pale skin with grayish tint. The Shinigami could see her eyes. Her eyes were similar to Takashi's.

The girl wore black tight pants underneath a tight black coat with golden edges and loosely golden belt around her hips. She also had a pair of black ankle-high high heel boots. She wore make-up, which contained dark purple eye shadow and purple pink lipstick.

The girl looked at Takashi, "What is it?"

Takashi pointed at Ichigo, "A Corrupted One bit him."

The girl looked at Ichigo, then kneeled down next to him. She looked at his wound, then sighed. She looked straight to Rukia's eyes.

"Please step aside so I can heal him," she spoke, "I need more space."

Wordlessly, Rukia followed and stood up, walked next to Rangiku. The girl put her right index and middle fingers on Ichigo's wound, closed her eyes then muttered something. The place where she put her fingers on started to glow. Then, talisman symbols appeared on the wound.

Ichigo yelped when the symbols splashed dark purple. The girl stopped muttering and put her fingers away. The others looked at Ichigo's arm. There was no wound on it, and no scar either.

"All done," the girl said and stood up, "You're safe."

Ichigo attempted to stand up, but then, he fell back to the ground. Rukia immediately caught him.

"Ichigo?!" she called desperately, "Ichigo?!"

But the said Shinigami didn't say anything.

"What happened to him?" Ikkaku asked angrily, "What have you done?"

"I just healed his wound," the girl said, "He's unconscious at the moment because his body is not used to my healing power. Don't worry, he will wake up 4 hours later."

With that, the girl and Takashi prepared to leave.

"Wait," Yumichika called, "Who are you?"

"She's my older sister, Kuroichi Ankoku," Takashi said, "She is the forth child and the second Lady of the Kuroichi clan. She is also known as 'Majo'."

Then, the two of them vanished.

**- TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC/TLC -**

Toshiro blinked his eyes after hearing the story.

"You mean to tell me that those creatures that we have to deal with are zombies?!" he asked in disbelief.

"Hai," Rukia nodded, "Or 'Corrupted Ones' like Kuroichi siblings called them."

"And those mysterious people with weird eyes from this Kuroichi clan are the ones who kill those zombies?!" Toshiro received nods from his teammates.

Toshiro sighed, "Kurosaki is still sleeping?!"

"Hai."

"Hitsugaya-taicho," Renji asked, "Why didn't you come to help us?! You sure could feel our reiatsu, right?!"

"No," Toshiro frowned, "I didn't feel your reiatsu when you were fighting with those zombies."

"That's strange," Rangiku said, "Now I think about this, not until we came to Urahara Shoten that I could sense your reiatsu, and then came to find you in the cemetery."

"What are you doing in the cemetery, Hitsugaya-taicho?" Kisuke spoke the first time.

"I met a girl there," Toshiro said. Then his eyes widened, "Her name is Kuroichi Hatsune, her hair is pure white and her eyes are strange with purple-red color and glowing ice blue ring in them."

"Another Kuroichi?!" asked Rangiku.

"I bet she was the reason why we couldn't sense you or you couldn't sense us," Ikkaku pointed out.

Toshiro narrowed his eyes, "This is complicated," he muttered, "Who are those Kuroichi people? Why did those zombies appear? And how many of them left?"

"The Kuroichi, or the zombies?" asked Yumichika.

"Both."

**Oh my Kami-sama, this is the longest chapter at the moment! Long live sugar high! It helps me write a longer chapter, and faster.**

**I still have a lot of energy, but I will stop writing now. I think I will turn on Bleach theme songs and dance!**

**Hope my neighbors don't mind.**

**Translation:**

**Kuroichi: **Black Blood

**Hokama: **Pyromaniac

**Majo: **Sorceress

**See you al next week with chappie 3 of TLC.**


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